Chris Pratt: Why I Became the ‘Stereotypical Soldier’ on Set

Chris Pratt may be deep in the depths of daddy duty, but the actor is more than willing to man up for the mission.

“[Fatherhood] is a real return on your investment. You have to invest more as the kid gets older,” Pratt, 33, tells PEOPLE. “You can’t just set them down in the crib and walk away. They are going to run around and require more of your attention and more nurturing.”

But the first-time father — who, along with wife Anna Faris, welcomed Jack in August — can’t wait for his hard work to pay off. “But with that comes their ability to say, ‘Daddy, I love you,’ which will happen one day,” he says. “Well, at least I hope he says that.”

Soaking up time with his son is extra special to the star, who plays part of the SEAL team that kills Osama Bin Laden in the Oscar-nominated movie Zero Dark Thirty.
While Pratt admits the birth of their baby boy brought him closer to his wife, the months leading up to Jack’s arrival — near the end of Faris’s pregnancy, he was overseas on location for the film — were often spent apart.

“Anna was really pregnant and I didn’t take it lightly that we would be traveling in the Middle East,” he explains. But with Faris’s prompting, Pratt agreed to sign on to the project — not know that the baby on the way would make the experience all the more real.

“It was this funny thing where I felt like one of the stereotypical soldiers you see in movies, you know, where he is always staring at a picture of his pregnant wife back home,” he says. “She ended up working in England so on a couple of weekends I was able to travel to London and see her there, which was really great. With Skype and FaceTime, it was a lot easier than I expected it to be.”

While away from his wife, Pratt kept plenty of good company on set in the form of a testosterone fueled tight-knit (and incredibly toned!) team of fellow actors. Having grown up playing sports and with his role in the primarily male-dominated movie, Moneyball, “spending time with a bunch of male energy” is second nature to the star.

“There was something about that, something about guys who are really fit and really confident, [who] work out a lot. There is a type of swagger that comes with the territory and a type of confidence,” he explains. “There is constant ribbing going on. The way we tended to communicate is through making fun of each other. That is actually the way that I grew up, and I came to discover that I really liked it a lot.”

As for that particular odor that seemed to always be present on set, well, that’s just the “memorable” smell of camaraderie, the actor jokes.

“Our wardrobe department only wanted to wash our gear about every two weeks. So things got pretty rotten,” Pratt, who was nicknamed Pigpen, shares. “I sweat right through my gear every single day. Luckily, I was the stinkiest one, so for me it was quite nice, but for everyone else it was quite harsh.”

Debuting a buff bod for his role proved to be beneficial to more than just his onscreen character.

“Being in good physical shape is the best way to combat depression. You just have endorphins running around your body. It is the best anti-depressive that there is,” he explains.

Since the film wrapped, Pratt has slowly packed on the pounds for his upcoming role in Starbuck — thanks to a blend of dark beer, hamburgers, cookies and candy — and while he’s looking to find a happy medium on the scale, he admits being heavier helps in his line of work.

“I primarily have had my career in comedy, and that is something that I have never been too concerned about because I know there is really no room for vanity in comedy,” he says. “Comedy comes from pain and it is a lot easier to empathize with somebody who is out of shape.”

Congratulations on everything! Zero Dark Thirty was amazing (seen it 4xs so far) it’s like figuring out a puzzle, love that stuff!

Carrow
on January 27th, 2013

I hope Kathryn Bigalow and Mark Boal do a movie that centers on SEAL Team 6 and I hope they bring all those sexy men back (Joel Edgerton, Chris, Taylor Kinney etc)!!

nadine
on January 27th, 2013

for some reason he sounds like a jackass

cristyG
on January 27th, 2013

I love him!!! He looks so hot in that movie!! But I adore him regardless of the movie!! His wife is also adorable!

Anonymous
on January 27th, 2013

He doesn’t sound like a jackass at all! He sounds sensitive and perceptive – I would never have guessed.

Anonymous
on January 27th, 2013

he was portraying a sailor not a soldier.

melissa
on January 27th, 2013

Stereotypical military service members do not have millions of dollars or get to zip to London on the weekend when deployed.

Tara
on January 28th, 2013

In Chris’s defense, when he said stereotypical soldier, I think he meant hoping his wife was ok while he wasn’t with her by her side, something military families go through all the time. He appreciates he got to see his wife but in movies, soldiers are often portrayed as looking at a photo of their new family, while they try to focus at the job at hand.

He is a nice man…. So relax a bit, he just meant he loves Anna and wanted to be near her during the pregnancy.

Anonymous
on January 28th, 2013

Tara- Exactly! I also want to point out that he specifically said that he felt he was one of “the stereotypical soliders you see in movies”. Key words: IN MOVIES. Obviously he wasn’t talking about real-life soldiers!

Lauren
on January 28th, 2013

Melissa, that’s not what he was referring to at all! He said he felt like a “stereotypical soldier you see in the movies,” not a stereotypical soldier. BIG difference. Many times, they show soldiers in movies, staring at pictures of their wives, that’s what he was referring to. They did this in the movie, The Lucky One, over and over and over.